


Ordinary Girl

by Butterfly



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-10-06
Updated: 2003-10-06
Packaged: 2017-10-26 18:41:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/286627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterfly/pseuds/Butterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dawn is asked to find something special about herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ordinary Girl

**Author's Note:**

> Post- _Chosen_. Minor geographical spoiler from _Just Rewards_ (5.02, AtS).

"I want to know about you," Ms. Borland said to the class and Dawn bit her lip, already trying to figure out what would be safe to tell.

She spent the entire period writing down safe ideas. Ideas that didn't mention demons or witches or Slayers.

She wanted to write about Buffy. She kinda wanted to be with Buffy, but Dawn got that Buffy needed a break. So Buffy was in Europe and Dawn was in San Francisco, stuck back in school.

When she got out of English, she called Xander. She had eight minutes before her next class and it was only three away. And months of fighting had left her more than capable of carrying all her books.

Dawn left a long and complicated message on his voice mail, only paying enough attention to where she was going to avoid bumping into anyone.

Xander never misplaced his cell phone, so he'd get the message to Buffy the next time that Buffy called him. Dawn reminded herself to wait at least a week before calling Xander again. Buffy usually called him about every two weeks.

Her next class was Bio and she flipped restlessly through her book, wishing for the millionth time that she could tell everyone that it was a big lie. That there were things out there that simple evolution had _nothing_ to do with.

PE was the easiest thing in the world, though Dawn took careful note of a new girl who seemed to have an even easier time than she did. She should call Willow and let her know that they had a Possible here.

Possibles were everywhere, though. And most of them weren't Actuals.

Lunch remained boring and she spent most of it in the library, staring at her notebook for English and trying out opening lines that she knew she wouldn't use.

 _I'm really only five years old._

 _My blood almost destroyed everything once._

 _My first kiss was with a dead guy._

 _I know over a hundred ways to kill._

After lunch, she had Calc, which was nice because it was the only class that didn't remind her of Buffy or anything magicy. Math was human in a way nothing else was. Plus, demons and any form of math weren't a good mix. Anya'd once said that the numbers just stopped making sense when you were a demon.

Dawn figured that that made as much sense as anything about demons did.

Pottery was next and even though she was really enjoying it, Dawn always ended up making things that looked like replicas of various mystical urns that she'd seen in the research books. Mr. Franklin was always impressed and Dawn was always vaguely creeped out. Still, she got 'A's and the last urn she'd sent Willow had held up through the mail, which Dawn considered proof of her own magic skills.

Going home to Dad instead of Buffy was still massively bizarre. And _he_ was weird now, though she supposed that anyone would be jumpy after what Buffy had said to him. Dawn hadn't even heard most of it but she'd have been scared, too.

It was really odd to live with someone who seemed vaguely afraid of you.

They didn't really spend much time together.

"Two more years," Dawn repeated to herself. She'd promised Buffy that she would at least try normal until she got out of high school.

She worked on homework for about an hour, then called Marie. Marie was the Coolest Girl Ever. At least in her own mind. She was fun, though, so it was easy enough to just let her believe. And Marie _was_ pretty cool, just not as great as she thought she was. And Marie understood what it was like when you lost people.

Plus, it was nice having friends who weren't in mortal danger every other week.

After she got off the phone, she finally tried to take another look at the essay.

 _"I want to know about you," Ms. Borland had said to the class and Dawn had bitten down hard on her lip, already trying to figure out what would be safe to tell. "I want you to tell me something that makes you special."_

Dawn's problem was that she couldn't think of anything that didn't.

  
_the end_   



End file.
